The Stairway To The Distant Past
Director: Kaizo Hayashi
Actors: Masatoshi Nagase, Eiji Okada, Joe Shishido
Year Released: 1995
Genre: Comedy, Yakuza
See Also: The Most Terrible Time In My Life, The Trap, Mike Yokohama: A Forest With No Name
Maiku Hama, Yokohama private eye. Just a nice guy trying to make it in post-Bubble Economy Japan, taking quick jobs finding lost pets and getting caught in the crossfire between yakuza and the cops.
The Stairway To The Distant Past is the second Maiku Hama film, following 1993's The Most Terrible Time In My Life and preceding 1997's The Trap. Less self-consciously noir than the first (Stairway is shot in color, with generous use of primary-color filters), this episode finds Maiku still operating out of an office in a movie theater, scrounging for jobs in a timely reflection of Japan's recently deflated economy.
"I thought private eyes were shady but you're nice," says Kyoko, a friend of Maiku's high school-age sister Akane. And seeing as nothing happens in movies without a reason, you can bet there's a whole lot of tragedy heading Kyoko's way, by way of a fairly complex plot involving both yakuza and police vying for control of the riverfront, the longstanding territory of a mystery figure known only as the White Man. Expectedly, Maiku gets sucked into the melee (via a crooked cop who sells him out faster that you can say "gambling debts settled"), and the only way out is, of course, through a face-to-face with the White Man.
Masatoshi Nagase (who made waves on these shores with his appearance in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train) plays Maiku as an everyman, not quite as flat or cool as his detective predecesors. This is an astute choice, for when Maiku's deadbeat mom, the stripper Dynamite Sexy Lily, returns to town after 15 years, it dredges up all sorts of emotional unpleasantness for Nagase, which he handles admirably, his anger driving the film towards its inevitable conclusion.
Not quite a parody of the yakuza genre, but much more than a mere paean, The Stairway To The Distant Past succeeds, thanks to its ability to cover lots of stylistic ground, and to do so effortlessly. It starts out all quirky humor, reminiscent of films like Tampopo, with Maiku chasing dogs around the city on a bicycle, his car having been repossessed by a loan shark. This light tone is soon obliterated by a yakuza massacre, as some brash yakuza thugs learn not to mess with the White Man's territory. And no private eye film is complete without a jet ski chase, nor without sappy closeups of a crying girl's tear-streaked face (I told you Kyoko was going to have a hard time of it).
Where the film really coalesces is when Maiku sets off to kill the White Man. Walking through a dream-like series of backstreets hidden behind a giant, broken pocket watch, Maiku is transported back in time to postwar, occupied Japan, the streets populated with frozen American GIs and black market stalls. In the center of all this is an abandoned factory, and here Maiku must face the White Man, keeper of the old ways. I won't give it away, but suffice it to say Maiku Hama is back for not only The Trap, but a Japan-only TV series as well.
Otaku alert: The White Man is played by Eiji Okada, former pin-up star and the male lead in Hiroshima Mon Amour. The film was written by Daisuke Tengan, who also adapted Takashi Miike's Audition. It also features an aging Joe Shishido, AKA Number 3 Killer from Branded To Kill. And the film is endorsed by the Assoc. Detective Agencies of Japan. How can you go wrong?
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